Jumbo Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
I’ve been in a semi-cookie mood lately but just yesterday finally got around to making some. I had the fill in items I wanted, but my mission was to find a new recipe to try. I flipped through my books and bookmarked recipes. I even did some searching online for something new. Finally I found the recipe to try. It had to be good, well… it didn’t have to be but I was putting my faith in it that it would be.
The recipe is from an amazing cookbook I received not too long ago; flour by Joanne Chang. Even though this is only my first recipe of hers to try, I can’t help but be optimistic that the rest are equally as amazing if not more so. Definitely give this book a consideration next time you’re in the market for a new cookbook. It’s filled with so many amazing pictures…just beautifully done all around.
I was determined to have a dark chocolate and cranberry cookie. With almost any cookie you can change up the add-in items pretty easily without messing up the overall taste of a cookie, this is no exception. Dark chocolate and cranberries go great together. The first problem I had was actually finding dark chocolate for the cookies. I honestly expected bags of chips or chunks to say ‘dark chocolate’ on them, not bittersweet etc. As it would turn out bittersweet and semisweet chocolate are both actually dark chocolate. I of course didn’t realize that when I was at the store so I ended up grabbing one of those jumbo chocolate bars in the candy aisle – specifically Hershey’s special dark chocolate bar. I figured it’d give me the ability to have larger chunks anyway which is what I wanted. Regular chips don’t always cut it.
After whipping them up, waiting a handful of hours and baking away… okay wait, I didn’t actually get to try them until that night. I took pictures first. I had planned on having a few extra to spare but had a little mishap where I accidentally turned off the oven after taking the first tray out of the oven – popped the second tray in not long after and well… they didn’t exactly cook and took me the full cook time plus a bit to realize my mistake. So my extras weren’t there for taste testing prior to my photo session. We split a cookie after dinner instead. Can I just say – amazing! They’re exactly what I was looking for. The only oatmeal cookie I’ve made up ’till now has been thicker and very soft – delicious but not what I wanted for this time. This particular cookie is jumbo – seriously jumbo… I mean so jumbo it fills up the center of our salad plates. They’re probably easily 4″ or more across. I love their size but also love how the flavors go so well together. The best thing is they’re chewy with the slightest crunch.
Jumbo Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 C unsalted butter, softened
- 3/4 C granulated sugar
- 1 C light brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 3/4 C all purpose flour
- 1 3/4 C old-fashioned oats
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 C dark chocolate, chopped
- 1 1/4 C dried cranberries
Instructions
- In a large bowl or stand mixer, cream butter and sugars on medium speed until light and fluffy. Scrape sides of bowl as needed and prior to each new addition. Add eggs, beat on medium speed until mixed well. Add dry ingredients: flour, oats, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Start out by mixing on slow, gradually increase the speed to medium. Mix until all ingredients are well incorporated into the dough.
- Add chopped dark chocolate pieces and dried cranberries. Stir by hand. Transfer to a medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 3-4 hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Prepare baking sheets with silpats or parchment paper. Using a large cookie scoop, scoop heaping balls of chilled dough (approximately 1/4 cup worth of dough per cookie). Place roughly formed balls of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Press down with the palm of your hand to flatten to a thickness of about 1/2". Dough should be spaced at least 2" apart from each other prior to baking.
- Bake for 16-20 minutes or until set in the middle and the edges are a nice golden color. Store in an airtight container.
I just got this book from the library! It’s sitting on the floor next to me right now! I just skimmed through it yesterday, but I’m definitely going to try some stuff out from it cause it all looks so good! I’m thinking about making the homemade poptarts first! But these cookies will definitely make the list cause they look really good!
There are so many tempting recipes in that cookbook it’s almost overwhelming where to start.
you had me at JUMBO! :)
These look so good! If I hadn’t just made banana bread last night I would be in my kitchen making these right now!
I love oatmeal cookies with chocolate. I’ve actually seen Special Dark chips or chunks for baking.
I keep looking for the cookbook…..I was hoping to get it for Christmas no luck… I have made the Banana Bread and it was yummy. These cookies sound equally good and I will print out the recipe…I love to bake!
Dark chocolate and cranberry is such a great combination. I actually started trying dark chocolate and cherry in cookies and granola recently and love that too. I used to work at Flour, and the recipes are so amazing. I just made the hazelnut-almond dacquoise around Christmastime.
Ooo.. dark chocolate and cranberry sounds like the perfect combination! And the cookies look so perfect! I was thinking of baking some cookies tomorrow now I have to try and decide between these and double chocolate… hmmm.. maybe I’ll have to make both! :)
The bigger the better. These cookies sound like a delight.
Yeah! The bigger the yummier! LOL. But for me even if that one is bigger than other cookies I will surely be not satisfied by one. I will still eat many of those for sure.
These look flawless. They’re the cookies I always try for and somehow fall short of. I’m definitely going to try this recipe.
Yes, I love dark chocolate and well, about anything! You often see white chocolate and cranberry used in recepies and I agree the red and white looks pretty, but is too sweet and lacks the flavor to really go with dried cranberries – which are usually sweetned as well. Dark chocolate is great!
I think that terms like semi-sweet and bittersweet, which have specific meaning, have been in use for a long, long time whereas “darK” chocloate is broad category that basically has come to mean anything that isn’t milk or white chocolate. So it would be good to learn the terms or look for the percentage of cocoa on the package when shopping.
Re: “so I ended up grabbing one of those jumbo chocolate bars in the candy aisle … Regular chips don’t always cut it.” You got Hershey’s, which seemed to work OK, but you have to be careful with this method as good quality chocolate has such a low meting point (body temperature) that it will melt too much when baking giving you chocolate swirl, rather than chocolate chip, cookies. In some cases good quality chips are better as they are made for baking and won’t melt too much.
I learned this trying to use chunks from a Callebaut 5kg chocolate bar in chocolate chip cookies.
Marie – I was actually having a discussion on twitter with several people about the lack of information on the chocolate packages, whether chips, bars etc. The big names that are commonly found in everyday grocery stores (not specialty stores) don’t offer the % of cacao. Very frustrating and that would have been helpful in my process for looking for dark chocolate chips or chunks. The chopped bar method definitely worked out okay for this cookie.
Even if you called this one a jumbo chocolate chunk oatmeal cookies I am not satisfied with just one. LOL. I am sure that my kids would also eat many of this even if its jumbo. Thanks for the recipe.
Rachel – These look great! Dark chocolate and oatmeal…makes it healthy right?!? =)
I finally got around to baking these cookies. I make up the dough on Friday Night and baked them late yesterday. I must say they were good! My husband is rather fussy with cookies……his first question is always…do they have nuts in them. This time I did not do the nuts I felt they didn’t need them. I thought the batter was stiff makes me wonder if I didn’t cream the butter and sugars long enough. Second, leaving the batter in refrig. over night was way to long because I couldn’t get the batter soft enough for the cookie scoop and I left the bowl out for some time..the kitchen was warm as I had just baked a cake. The cookie did turn out wonderful we shared one and than another. I will definitely do them again which is what I do if I think I did something wrong.
I’m glad they turned out for you and that you liked them! The dough itself is definitely pretty hard after chilling. I only chilled mine for I think 3 hours but that’s because I was so eager to cook them and take some pictures. The recommendation from the cookbook was what I listed within the recipe. The reason for chilling certain doughs or even cooking some straight from the freezer is they will spread less during the baking process. Some doughs just need that extra chill, but it all turns out in the end even if it is a little hard to get them to scoop. :)